Bristol's live music highlights: 15th - 21st May
Posted on: 15 May 2017As we move into mid May the weekly range of live music on offer remains as eclectic as ever, with house pioneers vying for attention with guitar-toters and experimental 'apocalyptic space funk' over the next seven days. Feast your ears.
The Cribs – O2 Academy, Tuesday
It has been 10 years since the release of Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever. Feel old yet? Much has changed in the decade since The Cribs penned their classic album, but the ability of the Jarman brothers to produce top-quality indie rock has not erred one iota. As such, though their latest tour, entitled Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Forever, is sure to celebrate this record’s 10th birthday adequately in its set list, will be packed full of songs from the triplet of records which followed. Catch the Wakefield trio in party mode when they rumble through the O2 on Tuesday.
The Comet Is Coming – The Fleece, Thursday
The Comet Is Coming are coming to Bristol. With their music self-ascribed as ‘apocalyptic space funk’, their debut album Channel The Spirits might not have made an obvious choice for the Mercury shortlisting it received. However with tracks as polemically-named as ‘The Prophecy’, ‘Slam Dunk in a Black Hole’ and ‘End of Earth’, it makes a perfect soundtrack for the end of days and a playlist for a world gone mad. Catch the trio, who identify individually as Betamax Killer, Danalogue the Conqueror and King Shabaka, at The Fleece on Thursday night.
George FitzGerald – The Love Inn, Thursday
Central to the ethos of Bristol residents Team Love is the mantra of ‘work hard, play hard’. The diligent set of party-throwers naturally need a place to unwind after a long day of planning a whole host of bashes, including Love Saves The Day and Love International, which is where their HQ, The Love Inn, comes in. Nothing but the sweetest of sountracks would be good enough for this joint, which is why it is regularly visited by DJs like George FitzGerald, who, on Thursday, is dropping in to ply his signature blend of understated, melodic house.
Robin S. and Danny Rampling – Vegfest UK, Lloyds Amphitheatre, Saturday
On the Saturday night of Vegfest, those within the Lloyds Amphitheatre will be whisked back to the mythicized second summers of love, the nascent days of the early ‘90s where kids defied the Public Order Act by attending raves in the vicinity of the M25. A sound-system stalwart at these parties was ‘Show Me Love’, the house archetype penned by Robin S. which has defied the ravages of the decades since. She will headline the vegan and vegetarian celebration on Saturday evening, following a set from Danny Rampling, another lynchpin of the early house movement.
Isaac Gracie – The Louisiana, Sunday
Isaac Gracie has been causing one hell of a noise within the music industry – one that is entirely at odds with the peaceful quality of the music he makes. The exquisite fragility of his vocal, with which he has lined his limited offerings to date, reflects perfectly Gracie’s vulnerability, revealed in his songs with disarming introspection. ‘Hey babe, what d’you expect me to say? / I could tell you that I’m doing great, but darling I’m just not okay,’ goes the opening line to latest single ‘Reverie’ a delicate track which burns slowly with a confessional honesty about the singer’s anxiety. It is one of rare beauty and well-suited to the low-ceilinged intimacy of The Louisiana, where he plays on Friday.
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An ardent Geordie minus the accent, Sam seemingly strove to get as far away from the Toon as possible, as soon as university beckoned. Three undergraduate years at UoB were more than ample time for Bristol (as it inevitably does) to get under his skin, and so here he remains: reporting, as Assistant Editor, on the cultural happenings which so infatuated him with the city. Catch him at sam@365bristol.com.
